Becoming a Shadow in the New World

Astallo followed closely behind Sid, her inorganic eyes still fixed on Sid's face, and spoke in response.

"The order is accepted."

Watching Sid go to the other side of the monastery, Rudolf turned to a corner of the monastery, took out a heavy crescent axe that was more than two meters tall, and judging from the heavy sound it made when it was pulled from the ground, it weighed at least several hundred kilograms.

This half-moon axe, weighing at least several hundred kilograms, was lifted by Rudolf with one hand with ease. He looked at the city outside the monastery and revealed a bloodthirsty and ferocious smile, completely opposite to his amiable demeanor in front of Sid.

Chapter Nineteen Astaluti

"Um, Astallo, why are you staring at my face?"

Sid was trying his best to ignore Astaluti's gaze, but anyone would feel awkward being stared at for more than ten minutes.

"In order to remember the owner's characteristics."

A voice that seemed devoid of any emotion emanated from Astaluti, her tone extremely flat.

"You don't need to remember it for so long."

Sid was exasperated by what Astalutie said.

"I don't know. Astallo clearly remembered her master's features, but during the verification process, the features couldn't match her memories. Is there something wrong with Astallo?"

It was the same voice, but Sid could still detect a hint of surprise and confusion in it.

"Then there's no need for a second confirmation. Astallo, just remember both confirmations."

Sid looked at Astarothie with a speechless expression, but still treated Astarothie as an emotionless artificial life form and gave it orders.

I know you're annoyed because that conman sent you to spy on me, so you're deliberately trying to annoy me, but you don't need to come up with such a ridiculous excuse to fool an idiot. You're not a real artificial life form, so you don't need to pretend like this.

“The command is accepted, ... Master.”

After receiving Sid's order, Astallo lowered her head, preventing Sid from seeing the various emotions flashing in her eyes.

Astallo felt something was wrong with her; what she had just told Sid wasn't all that she perceived, and she had lied.

She said she was right that she remembered Sid's physical features, but when she checked, Sid's face was correct; she still saw Sid's face, but for some reason, she felt that it was different from what she remembered.

If we consider her as a computer, the face of Sid that she sees during the password reset stage is a photo with the pixelation completely blurred, while the face of Sid that she sees during the password confirmation stage is a super high-definition photo with the pixelation removed. Her perception tells her that these two photos are of the same person, but her feeling tells her that these two people look different.

Moreover, when looking at the second photo, Astarothie felt an urge for some reason. If she had to describe this urge, she thought Sid's face was beautiful and she wanted to keep looking at it.

But the knowledge in Astallo's mind told her that this was impossible, that she could not possibly feel that way.

Is there a difference between normal people and artificial life forms?

Yes, there are many examples. For instance, sentient beings have an appreciation for beauty and an impulse to pursue it, while artificial life forms do not.

For artificial life forms, pain is a perception, comfort is a perception, sweetness is a perception, bitterness is a perception. These are all just information received from the outside world. They do not feel any difference between these information because they have no emotions. Only those who have emotions can make judgments about these information and feel that they hate this feeling or like that feeling.

If an artificial life form finds something beautiful, it only proves that the artificial life form has developed emotions.

So, what exactly is it?

Astallo didn't know, but for the first time, she felt an urge to find out what it was.

“Astarte, you don’t need to follow me all the time. You can go back first. I’ll be fine on my own.”

Sid looked at Astaluti, who was following behind him, and spoke.

He didn't actually want Astallo to follow her and find out where his house was, because that meant if he couldn't wipe out the group of swindlers and erase their memories of the pure gold cross by tomorrow night, his current home might become a target.

Astallo looked up at Sid, the girl's mechanical way of thinking preventing her from taking any action based on Sid's non-command words.

Seeing Astaluti pretending not to understand, Sid could only sigh inwardly.

Well, he knew that world-class collectibles weren't so easy to obtain. How could a group of professional con artists not be wary of him, the one holding their treasure? The girl in front of him was someone they sent to monitor him in case he suddenly came to his senses.

"Astarte, what kind of ship will I be on? And what is the situation with the church?"

Seeing that he couldn't get Astallo to leave, Sid decided to try to extract information from her so he could catch the con artists without causing too much of a commotion, erase their memories, and hand them over to the police force.

Using the excuse of wanting to know the departure situation of the ship tomorrow night to avoid mistaking the ship, and wanting to know the future work location, are two good excuses. Even if Astaluti will not tell the truth in order to conform to the church's setting, unless they have planned the setting in advance, people will always use the truth of the matter as a template when they lie.

In Astallo's judgment, the word "said" in Sid's words was a command, so Astallo spoke.

"The command is accepted. As far as Astaluti knows, the token in the master's hand can be shown to enter any ship. As for the church, Astaluti is not clear about it."

Sid squinted. Although Astalie seemed not to have said anything, he still managed to analyze the information that Astalie had inadvertently revealed, thanks to his superior intelligence.

First, the cross necklace does indeed grant free transportation, as it represents the church. However, every time it is used, the company that sees it reports it to the church, which then verifies whether the person who received it is the one they personally gifted it to.

The fact that not many have left indicates that some have indeed left, and most of them are due to their owners being eliminated.

If the necklace is used as a free means of transportation by the person who killed its owner, wouldn't that be a slap in the face to the church?

Therefore, it is certain that there are members of this criminal gang among the staff. Only in this way can they intercept the information that the freight company will report to the church.

Secondly, since he left using a necklace, he must have been on a commercial vessel, not a private or illegal ship. This further proves that there is a mole among the staff, and that there are many moles.

After all, if they can use commercial ships to traffic people, it's no wonder there are so many moles. Maybe even the higher-ups in the shipping company have their people. But it doesn't matter. He doesn't need to catch everyone. He only needs to catch the people who know that the necklace is in his hands.

As expected of him, he easily deduced so much information from just one sentence, hahaha...

Looking at Sid who suddenly lowered his head and laughed, Astarothie tilted her head, not understanding what was going on.

When Sid came to his senses and looked at Astarothie staring at him, he realized that his old habit had relapsed.

"Astarothie, this is the first time I've realized how powerful my identity is. I might even become a Holy Child! Do you think I'll be able to integrate into the Church because of this identity?"

Sid naturally glossed over his sudden laugh and, in the ensuing conversation, displayed the mindset of a teenage boy wanting to show off in front of women, intentionally guiding Astarothie to interpret his laugh as a delusional fantasy about his future.

"Command recognition error, because the artificial life form is unable to provide an answer to this question. Requesting a new command."

Astallo spoke expressionlessly, but offered no substantial answer.

Sid's command contained the word "speak," which Astallodi judged as an order from Sid to her, but what he asked her to say was beyond her ability to answer.

No matter what, a normal person will always choose to appear positive, so how could they say that someone can't integrate into the group?

However, for artificial life forms, questions that lack data and whose answers are limited to yes or no, and involve too many personal factors, are unanswerable because artificial life forms lack emotions.

"Let me think about it. Let me think about whether I can successfully board the ship, join the church and become a holy child, and ideally, have a bunch of people fall in love with me, build a harem and reach the pinnacle of life."

Sid didn't understand what Astalutie had just said and was still playing the role of a delusional teenager who had been fooled.

"Think about it"—is "think about it" an order?

Based on my memory, "想" is a verb, so "想一想" is a command.

As soon as this conclusion appeared in Astallodi's mind, she began to think along the lines of what Sid had instructed her to do.

In theory, even if the artificial life form's master orders it to imagine something, the artificial life form will only answer "I don't know" and request a new order, because artificial life forms lack emotions. Emotions are one of the foundations of imagination, so Astaluti's answer would only be...

“According to the order, Astaluti judged that the master would not be able to board the ship smoothly because the master did not believe that he was ‘blessed by God’ and thought it was a deception. Therefore, the master would not board the ship tomorrow night in order to leave this island.”

Chapter Twenty Roseweather

Sid's steps veered off course, and black slime liquid seeped from the surface of his skin beneath his clothes. The 1x magic power tempering technique that had been maintained within his body silently dropped to 0.95x.

"Ha, ha, Astallo, you're so funny, you've really made me laugh."

Astallodi simply continued to watch Sid, and would not make any move unless she received an order to do something.

Sid didn't say anything more, remaining silent as if nothing had happened, but the path he led had unknowingly changed to a side path.

The sun had long since set, and the vampire's morning had arrived. As Sid and Astalutie walked along the path longer, fewer and fewer pedestrians appeared. It was a dark and stormy night for murder...

……

Why hasn't she made a move yet? She's almost at my house. What did she mean by what she said earlier? What does she mean now? Was she really just joking with me?

With this thought in mind, Sid glanced discreetly at Astaluti, who was still following behind him, and looked around. His house was just a few hundred meters away, and this was his last chance to make a move.

The journey of a few hundred meters was quickly completed, and Sid was too lazy to think anymore. He decided that he wouldn't wait until tomorrow night; he would counter-track and wipe out the other side tonight.

The door was quickly unlocked, and Sid stepped into the room, saying something out of politeness.

"Come in and sit down."

"Command accepted!"

Before Sid could react, Astallo walked in.

Seeing this scene, Sid could only silently walk to the sofa and sit down.

"Speak, Astallo, what exactly do you want?"

Sid felt he couldn't keep deceiving himself; the girl in front of him knew he didn't believe their scam at all.

Even if we take a step back and assume that what she said was just a joke!

His next statement was enough to prove that he did not believe their vulgar scam. He said that artificial life forms would joke, which in itself meant that he did not believe that Astaluti was an artificial life form.

"Command recognition error, request to reissue command."

Seeing the girl in front of him still pretending not to know, Sid felt his fist harden.

"Stop pretending. Although I've never seen a real artificial life form, I have heard that artificial life forms have no feelings."

"You acted very well, almost like a real artificial life form, but you are not a real artificial life form after all. Your eyes and words still inevitably reveal emotional fluctuations."

Astallo absorbed the information from Sid's words, trying to discern the command based on Sid's past behavior patterns.